Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers: Are Coaching Changes Good For the Team?

Here are some thoughts for sports on the Web.

The Montreal Canadians hired Jacques Martin as their new head coach on Monday.

Martin, who was the general manager in Florida, decided he wanted to get back to a hockey hot-bed market. Well, Montreal will sure keep his feet to the fire on that front.

He is the first head coach Montreal has hired out of the previous five to have NHL experience before the hiring. The last one was Jacques Demers back in the early 90s.

Martin will meet with Bob Gainey and the assistant coaches, Kurt Muller, Doug Jarvis, and Don Leaver in the next week or so to see if they will be retained.

The only thing Allsports can see about Martin in Montreal is that he speaks the language, and he has some experience. Maybe he and Bob Gainey can bore each other to death.

I don’t think the fans in Montreal will be to pleased with Martin’s defence-first approach.

Last week Edmonton hired Pat Quinn as their new head coach with Tom Renney as an associate coach.

Allsports likes this coaching combination, both Renney and Quinn have years of experience behind the bench.

Renney, you may remember if you follow sports on the Web or sports news, was fired as the New York Rangers head coach back in the spring and replaced by John Tortorella.

Quinn’s latest coaching position was leading the Canadian Junior Team to the gold medal back in January.

Tom Renney           Pat Quinn

Allsports thinks Pat Quinn could help a young Oilers team. His knock was that he was never good with young players, but he did OK leading the Canadian Junior Team.

“No Guts, No Glory”—Walt Webb

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